1. Related Applications
Reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 4,382,611, entitled SKI BINDING AND BOOT, and U.S. application Ser. No. 337,824, filed Jan. 7, 1982, now U.S. Pat. No. 4.496,168 the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
2. Field of the Invention
The present application relates to a ski binding for securing a boot to a ski.
Although the apparatus of the present invention can be used to secure either the front and/or the rear of the boot to a ski when practicing downhill skiing, it is more particularly adapted in the context of the present invention as a binding for securing the front end of the ski shoe or boot so that the heel is free to lift off the ski, as occurs in mountaineering or cross-country type skiing.
3. Description of Pertinent Information
Numerous bindings are known in which the attaching of the boot on the ski and the removing of the boot from the ski are done manually by a voluntary action of the skier on a journalled lever. For example, nordic-type bindings have been developed which have a pivoting stirrup that must be manipulated by hand. This type of arrangement is relatively old and well known and therefore, need not be further discussed. More recently, French Patent No. 2,447,731 of the Assignee of the present invention uses a manual manipulation means comprising a mobile lock biased by an elastic element. Although, these two bindings respond to the technical demands of cross-country skiing, specifically by retaining the sole of the boot on the ski, these bindings have the disadvantage of requiring manual manipulation by the skier. The required manipulations are annoying because the skier must bend forward, thereby effecting a considerable flexion and risking a loss of balance. It may even be necessary for the skier to place a knee on the ground which is often uncomfortable depending upon the quality Of the snow and/or the terrain. Further, when using bindings having a pivoting lock on a journalled mounting, not only is it necessary to disengage the lock before attaching the boot to the binding, which is equally true in the nordic-type bindings, but it is also necessary to return the lock to the corresponding part of the sole.
Other bindings, such as those described in the French Certificate of Addition No. 2,497,674 and in French Patent No. 2,527,081 are designed to remedy these disadvantages of manual manipulation by permitting one to attach the boot to the binding automatically. However, in order to allow for this automatic attachment of the boot to the ski in a manner compatible with known kinematics, it was necessary to very substantially reduce the force with which the boot is held on the ski below that which is normally obtained using bindings allowing the manual attachment of the boot on the ski. Further, these automatic bindings do not benefit from a large enough lever arm between the sole and the pivoting axis of the lock. In addition, because the lock of such automatic bindings pivots around a journal, the force which is exerted by the elastic system on the lock is distributed on the sole of the boot and the journal.
Thus, there is a need for a binding which permits the boot to be automatically attached and held on the ski with a force comparable to manual bindings and which does not transfer the retention force of the elastic system to the journal when the lock is in its active, retention position.